the earliest period of his existence, while he is yet in his mother's womb, a peculiar and personal friend and guardian from the innumerable host of heaven. Unless a man actually drives this protector away by impure and impenitent behaviour, there is every reason to believe that he continues with him to the end; continually defending him from the assaults of the devil, and the corruption of human nature; putting aside a thousand secret dangers; comforting him under all his sorrows and vexations; leading him to a thousand opportunities of doing good; in short, watching about his path, and about his bed, and teaching him imperceptibly those qualities which may render him meet to partake of a heavenly inheritance. But, to use the words of the author before us, and with which we shall conclude this paper,

Angels care for us to the last, and show us most love, when we most need it, viz. on our death beds. They comfort the good, and shed a composure over the departing spirit which has often astonished lookers on; and they keep off evil spirits, whose business at such a time is to terrify, and restrain from repentance. Many holy martyrs both of ancient and modern times, have declared that angels stood by and relieved their sufferings. I doubt not, that all experienced visitants of the sick and dying, have seen beds of death turned to beds of rapture; none of these will deny that beings of another world may have sung a requiem to the fainting soul, unheard by all besides; some perhaps may have caught the half-uttered name of Angel, in the last faint expressions of the dying Saint.-P. 172. When the soul is at length released from the burthen of the flesh, Angels conduct it to Paradise. Whether they hold communion with it in its disembodied state is not recorded. But it is revealed in Scripture, that they shall all attend the Lord Jesus, at his second coming to judge the world; shall witness his justice and mercy, and his final triumph over sin and the devil; shall execute the sentence of wrath upon the wicked, but gather the elect together, and usher them, with unspeakable joy and triumphant love, into their own eternal heavens, into the presence of their common Maker and Preserver.-P. 174.

188

Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, in the years 1819, 20, 21, and 22. By JOHN FRANKLIN, Captain R.N., F.R.S., and Commander of the Expedition. With an APPENDIX on various subjects relating to Science and Natural History. Illustrated by numerous Plates and Maps. Published by Authority of the Right Hon. The Earl Bathurst. 1 vol. 4to. London, Murray. 1823.

It is impossible to rise from reading this volume, without being impressed with the highest respect (almost amounting, we might say, to veneration) for the character of Captain Franklin, and of all the officers composing the expedition. Their courage, their fortitude, their endurance, under circumstances almost unparalleled in the history of human suffering-their neglect and denial of self-their beautiful sympathy and anxiety for each other all combine to the highest honour of the individuals, to the credit of our national character, and even of human nature itself,

We had not conceived it possible for men to survive such privations, aggravated as they were by severe, and almost unremitting, toil. From the time they quitted the sea, at the end of August, to the 7th of November, they existed, with very slight, and latterly no exception, on pounded bones, old leather, and a weed called tripe de roche, which seems almost to have contributed more to the attenuation than the sustenance of the body;and for two months of this period they suffered under fatigue and exposure which would, it might be thought, have, of themselves, been almost too much for men of the strongest frames, supported by the amplest nourishment.

During the whole of this terrible journey, so far from there being any of those displays of selfishness into which intense suffering so frequently hardens naturally kind dispositions, the only slight ebullitions of that peevishness which at last excess of weakness brought on, were occasioned by contests of which should do and suffer the most. Above all, that horrible resource to which men in such extremities have been so frequently driven, never once seems to have occurred to their minds. "The longings of the cannibal" never did "arise"they never

66

spoke of lots for flesh and blood,

And who should die to be his fellow's food."

Even when some of the Canadian voyagers were left behind, from exhaustion, to almost certain destructionnay, when some of them actually died,-the dreadful benefit they might have been to them seems never to have been thought of. They awaited death calmly. The Canadians themselves, selfish and even brutal as they were in many instances, seem never to have hinted at or devised any thing of the kind. One horrible exception to this is believed to have occurred, but we shall advert to the circumstances of that tragic story in its place.

But we are beginning at the end;-for the deep and terrible interest of the latter occurrences engrosses the mind, to the exclusion of what has gone before. We must, however, recur to the commencement,-and shall lay before our readers a précis of the very voluminous Narrative of this extraordinary Expedition. The Narrative is, indeed, too voluminous, as is every book of the kind we ever met with. The minuteness of a daily detail is advantageous, and even necessary, in the official record of proceedings of this nature; but they ought,

in our judgment, to be compressed into a more condensed form for general publication. With this drawback, however, (which, as we have stated, we believe to be universal in similar works,) the Narrative is very ably drawn up ;-simple and clear in its style, and totally free from the slightest affectation or pretension. Its distinguishing characteristic, indeed, is the author's desire to do justice and honour to his companions,— treating of his own conduct with the most extreme and truest modesty. He notices as trivial and natural matters, the highest instances of hardship and self-denial on his part ;-not with that sort of bravado lightness which seems to say, "See what things I consider as nothing!"-but with that reserve which a man of real delicacy feels in speaking of his own exploits.

The Expedition under Captain Franklin's command consisted of Dr. Richardson, a surgeon in the NavyMr. Back and Mr. Hood, Midshipmen, (promoted, while in America, as was Mr. Franklin from the rank of Lieutenant,) and an English seaman, of the name of Hepburn, whose conduct, truly, and in the best sense, heroic, contributed essentially to the preservation of the lives of some of his officers, and will ever reflect honour upon his own name. After a voyage attended with many delays, and some dangers, the Expedition arrived at York Factory, the principal establishment of the Hudson's Bay Company, on the 30th of August, 1819;—and on the 9th of September they set forward on their travels into the interior. This part of their progress, being in boats up a river, is not peculiarly interesting. They arrived at Cumberland House, 690 miles from York Factory, on the 22d of October. Here, in consequence of the advance of the season, they determined to remain for the winter. Subsequently, however, Mr. Franklin

resolved on proceeding onward with Mr. Back, to concert measures for the furtherance of their ulterior objects, leaving Messrs. Richardson and Hood at Cumberland House, to devote the remainder of the winter weather to the more exclusively scientific pursuits of the Expedition.

On the 18th of January, 1820, Messrs. Franklin and Hood set forward on their journey ;—

But previously to detailing the events of the journey, it may be proper to describe the necessary equipments of a winter-traveller in this region, which I cannot do better than by extracting the following brief, but accurate, account of it from Mr. Hood's journal :

"A snow-shoe is made of two light bars of wood, fastened together at their extremities, and projected into curves by transverse bars. The side-bars have been so shaped by a frame, and dried before a fire, that the front part of the shoe turns up like the prow of a boat, and the part behind terminates in an acute angle; the spaces between the bars are filled up with a fine netting of leathern thongs, except that part behind the main bar, which is occupied by the feet; the netting is there close and strong, and the foot is attached to the main bar by straps passing round the heel, but only fixing the toes, so that the heel rises after each step, and the tail of the shoe is dragged on the snow. Between the main bar and another in front of it, a small space is left, permitting the toes to descend a little in the act of raising the heel to make the step forward, which prevents their extremities from chafing. The length of a snow-shoe is from four to six feet, and the breadth one foot and a half, or one foot and three quarters, being adapted to the size of the wearer. The motion of walking in them is perfectly natural, for one shoe is level with the snow, when the edge of the other is passing over it. It is not easy to use them among bushes, without frequent overthrows, nor to rise afterwards without help. Each shoe weighs about two pounds, when unclogged with snow. The northern Indian snow-shoes differ a little from those of the southern Indians, having a greater curvature on the outside of each shoe; one advantage of which is, that when the foot rises, the over-balanced side descends and throws off the snow. All the superiority of European art has been unable to improve the native contrivance of this useful machine.

"Sledges are made of two or three flat boards, curving upwards in front, and fastened together by transverse pieces of wood above. They are so thin, that, if heavily laden, they bend with the inequalities of the surface over which they pass. The ordinary dog-sledges are eight or ten feet long, and very narrow, but the lading is secured to a lacing